Browse Master????

[Nathan Guidry]

Other than using BROWSTAT, is there another utility that will scan a
domain/workgroup to find which computer is the browse master. At one of our
sites, when we run browstat, we get an Access Denied. Users at that site
are unable to browse network neighborhood. They have 2 windows servers and
neither is running WINS. If anyone knows of a way to find which computer is
the browse master, or a way to fix this problem (other than installing WINS)
please help. Thank You.

 

[John Wunderlich]

Other than using BROWSTAT, is there another utility that will scan
a domain/workgroup to find which computer is the browse master.
At one of our sites, when we run browstat, we get an Access
Denied. Users at that site are unable to browse network
neighborhood. They have 2 windows servers and neither is running
WINS. If anyone knows of a way to find which computer is the
browse master, or a way to fix this problem (other than installing
WINS) please help. Thank You.

You can find the browse master using the "nbtstat" command. It will
take a long time, but you can scan your subnet using a command like:

for /L %i in (1,1,254) do nbtstat -A 192.168.1.%i

The browse master for that subnet will return a line beginning with
"..__MSBROWSE__." when it is the target of a nbtstat command.

HTH,
John

 

[Nathan Guidry]

*UPDATE*
Ok, I ran the GFI network scanner with only the NetBIOS option against the
subnet. I was able to find the computer that was acting as the Master
Browser and it turned out to be a Linux box running Samba. We called the
owner for him to remove samba from the box and I ran the scan again. This
time the linux box did not show up in my scan, however, none of the other
pcs that were running the browser service became the master browser. I
tried running the "browstat elect" command to force an election, and still
none of the pc's became the master browser. We tried on a Win2K3 server to
force it to be the master using regedit, and that did not work. Any
suggestions????

 

[Nathan Guidry]

*UPDATE*
Ok, we found a Windows 2003 Server and promoted it to be a domain
controller. Once the server rebooted, it assumed the role of Master
Browser. My question now is, does a Windows Server have to be a domain
controller to be a Master Browser??? If no, why did this stand alone server
not assume the role being that the other pcs on the network are either
member servers like itself or workstions?

 

[John John]

Inline replies.

*UPDATE*
Ok, we found a Windows 2003 Server and promoted it to be a domain
controller. Once the server rebooted, it assumed the role of Master
Browser.

It won the browser election. Server 2003 PDC is at the top of the
pecking order.


My question now is, does a Windows Server have to be a domain

controller to be a Master Browser???

No, if no machines are set to be Master Browser a browser election occurs.

If no, why did this stand alone server

not assume the role being that the other pcs on the network are either
member servers like itself or workstions?

It lost the browser election, another machine had a higher pecking order
or was designated to be the Master Browser or the losing server was set
to not be a potential Master Browser.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/winntas/deploy/prodspecs/ntbrowse.mspx
http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/windows/ntwsguide/ntwsnfinding.html

John